HOUSTON (SportsRadio 610) -- Texans wide receiver Kenny Stills saw video of a Wisconsin man being gunned down by police, it was 5 a.m. and he was just a few hours away from taking the practice field at the Methodist Training Center.
Stills said the image of Jacob Blake being shot in the back in front of his children had him reconsider going to work for the day. He’d been upset, crying all the way up to practice.
Something totally unrelated happened at practice and the emotional Stills found himself on the sideline ready to explode.
There is a sense of fear -- for himself, family, friends and people who look like him -- that this could happen to any of them.
Stills has been protesting against racism and police brutality since 2016, when Colin Kaepernick first sat and later took a knee during the national anthem, launching a contentious conversation about race in America.
Stills, like many black people in this county, worries what might happen if he gets pulled over and the encounter goes sideways.
He admitted Monday that there’s almost a sense of defeat, especially when it continues to happen.
“But over the past couple of months I’ve been trying to figure out ways to kind of battle through that and try to be the light, or try and be a light within my family and my community, this locker room, and not be defeated and not give up,” Stills said. “Yeah, there’s a sense of fear but there’s also this sense of anger. I’m really just toeing the line on that edge, trying not to be destructive, trying to be constructive in this environment as much as possible.”
When Stills considered whether he would play football this season, aside from safety dealing with COVID-19, he said sports are a distraction from the movement toward social justice.
He brushed off recent comments made by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, who expressed regret for not listening to players like Kaepernick and Stills when they tried to school him on the issue years ago.
“He can say whatever he wants to say now. But in a sense, if we would’ve taken a more stern stance and he would’ve listened to us in the beginning of this, there are so many lives that could have been saved, a lot of progress we could’ve made within our law enforcement, within our police,” Stills said. “And so it’s a nice gesture, I guess, to say he wishes he would’ve done something different, but look at the NFL. We’re supposed to be kind of the leaders in our country and I feel like we figure out a way to always be – how do I want to say this? We’re reactive instead of proactive when it comes to a lot of the issues in our country and within the league, as well. I hope that we can do a better job moving forward of listening to our players, understanding our issues and doing something about it.”
Stills also wants to see the NFL owners take more action to create change, rather than simply having conversations and marketing the movement.
Since the death of Houston-native George Floyd in May, pro sports leagues in America have struck a different tone.
Goodell admitted to the NFL being short-sighted. Major League Baseball and the NBA have displayed “Black Lives Matter” on their playing surfaces upon their return from hiatus.
When asked if he thought the mainstreaming of the movement rang hollow, Stills did not hold back.
“Obviously it’s great to have more people listening, more people paying attention, but there’s got to be action behind that,” he said. “There’s people in high places all across the league that can be reaching out to other people in high places to make legislative change, to make real change. So, yes, it’s great that we’re opening up and having a conversation and listening to each other, but what are we going to do about it? Taking a knee, raising a fist and making t-shirts, putting people’s names on our helmets or what have you – that’s not going to bring somebody back to life. That’s not going to stop somebody from getting shot.
“I’m really focused on the things that I can do outside of just taking a knee, like I always have been. So, yeah, it’s great that we’ve got more people involved in the movement and more people paying attention, but it seems like, in a way, a lot of the leagues are just figuring out ways to market it and then make money off of it and then move forward.”